World Housing helps fund the first 3D printed home community.

World Housing Ambassadors provide critical funds.

World Housing is a 100% non-profit organization which means every dollar raised goes towards building homes. Working with donor partners called ‘World Housing Ambassadors’, individuals and organizations are empowered to create sustainable social impact as part of their business strategy. These forward-thinking businesses and individuals play an integral role by providing the much-needed funds to help build the first ever 3D community in 2019.

Alliances that pioneer solutions aimed at the global housing crisis.

“In 2050 it is estimated that over 3 Billion people will be without safety and shelter. If we continue on the same linear trajectory, we are not going to match solutions with the exponentially growing problem of global homelessness. Radical problems require revolutionary thinking.” - Brett Hagler, CEO New Story

World Housing exists to provide a home for everyone and is focussed on connecting people and organizations, building partnerships that align around this goal so we can maximize the potential of our collective social impact. – Don McQuaid, Managing Director World Housing

World Housing, New Story & Icon driving innovation.

One year ago, World Housing’s partners New Story Charity and Icon unveiled a revolutionary 3D printing technology designed to provide housing to the world’s poorest. This technology was developed to build a home fast, for lower cost and at a higher quality. It also uses fewer materials and creates markedly less waste, making it a more economical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional building methods.

Behind every advancement in technology are pioneering people who are the heart and soul of changing the world. With passion and a relentless drive to increase social impact, the Icon and New Story teams continued to work together to come up with improvements in design, building strength, and sustainability.

New Story, researching best practices and failures in social impact projects around the world, recognized that the key to successful community building was adapting to the cultural and environmental influences that impact the families who live in the homes. It was with a view to ensuring that communities are purpose-built through human-centric design that New Story created a participatory process that allowed feedback from the people who would be living in the homes.

On The Importance of Participatory Design. Alexandria Lafci Co-Founder New Story

Icon embraced the challenge to improve on the first iteration of their 3D design. Through the refinement of their proprietary technology, both software and hardware were enhanced to build even faster and provide multiple styles of homes. This evolution will eventually provide larger homes for larger families.

At the same time Icon also advanced the science behind the components that form the home to ensure that their 3D machine could build in countries around the world.

Fast forward to this week when their latest 3D home printer, called the Vulcan II was unveiled in Austin Texas. Vulcan II took the initial capabilities of Vulcan I and expanded on it. Now adaptation can be made to allow for differences in temperature, elevation, and humidity so homes can be built in different environments with varied designs to meet the needs of the community being built.

This is how radical change happens.

The key to social impact is funding.

Revolutionary technology alone cannot accomplish everything, and these 3D homes could not be built if not for funding that pays for the ongoing cost of construction. 3D printed homes cost between $5,000 to $6000 USD, with the cost varying based on the finishing of windows, roofs, and services. Even at an incredibly low cost per home, each community requires 50 to 100 homes and that adds up. In order to solve the housing crisis, there needs to be an ongoing and reliable source of social impact funding to build these homes.

World Housing Ambassadors provide these much-needed funds.

Agents of Change connect the top of the real estate pyramid to the very bottom.

In 2017 World Housing and New Story working with Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty launched the Agents of Change program. It was created to empower realtors to give back through their work. Today there are Sotheby’s International Realtors all over the USA and Canada who are becoming ‘Agents of Change’ through a commitment to funding the construction of the first 3D home community.